God’s Love

‘I have loved you, saith the Lord.’–Mal. 1:2

IS not this a sweet pillow to rest upon to-night? But a pillow is of no use if you only look at it; that does not rest you. You must lay your head down upon it, and then you rest. So, do not only think, ‘Yes, that is a very nice text;’ but believe it, and lay your heart down restfully upon it; and say, ‘Yes, He loves me!’
How different these words are from what we should have expected! We should have expected God to say, ‘I will love you, if you will love me.’ But no! He says, “I have loved you.’ Yes, He has loved you already, poor little restless heart, that wants to be loved! He loves you now, and will love you always.
But you say, ‘I wish I knew whether He loves me!‘ Why, He tells you so; and what could He say more? There it stands–‘I have loved you, saith the Lord.’ It is TRUE, and you need only believe it, and be glad of it, and tell Him how glad you are that He loves you.
But you say, ‘Yes, I know He loves good people; but I am so naughty!’ Then He has a special word for you: ‘God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.’ He says nothing about ‘good people,’ but tells you that He loved you so much, while you were naughty, that He has sent the Lord Jesus, His own dear, dear Son, to die for you. Could He do more than that?
He says in the same verse (Mal. 1.2), ‘Yet ye say, Wherein hast Thou loved us?’ Wherein? O herein! not that you loved God, but that He loved you, and sent His Son to suffer instead of you.
When you lie down, think how many answers you can find to that question, ‘Wherein hast Thou loved us?’ See how many proofs of His love you can count up; and then go to sleep on this soft, safe pillow, ‘I have loved you, saith the Lord!’

‘I am so glad that our Father in heaven
Tells of His love in the book He has given;
Wonderful things in the Bible I see:
This is the dearest, that Jesus loves me.

‘Oh, if there’s only one song I can sing
When in His beauty I see the great King;
This shall my song in eternity be,
“Oh, what a wonder, that Jesus loves me!”‘